In a special tribute aired on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, the Doctor Strange star said: “Rob, congratulations on your 1,000th show (sic).

“I only got up to something like 92 of Hamlet, I couldn’t imagine how you feel playing Judge Rinder every day.

“A thousand – that is amazing, well done, we love you.”

Benedict Cumberbatch and wife Sophie Hunter (Matt Crossick/PA)

The pair are old friends and Rinder was reportedly Cumberbatch’s best man at his wedding to Sophie Hunter.

Rinder laughed and expressed his delight at the message, saying: “It’s a similar thing, isn’t it? Playing Hamlet and dealing with a case about a man in a lime green mankini? Very, very similar.”

Asked by host Piers Morgan what gift he had received from ITV to celebrate the landmark, Rinder said: “I thought it was a good opportunity, the economic climate being what it is, for a little bit of a pay rise.

“Judge Judy seems to get it every year, but instead they gave me a golden gavel.”